Benincasa’s map of 1482[260] (Fig. 22) presents Salvagio as Saluaga,
and I in Mar without name, but omits Reylla, both name and figure.
The islands shown are in their accepted form and arrangement, except
that Saluaga has but two bays on the western side, and his map adds
a novelty in a series of names applied to the several bays, or the
regions adjoining them, of the two larger islands. These names (Fig.
22) are twelve in number and seem like the fanciful work of some
Portuguese who was haunted by a few Arabic sounds in addition to those
of his native tongue. Several of them, like Antillia, begin with
“An,” perhaps another illustration of the law of the line of least
resistance. I cannot think that there is any significance in these bits
of antiquated ingenuity, though, as we have seen in Chapter V, some
have believed they found in them a relic of the Seven Cities legend.
THE WEIMAR MAP (AFTER 1481)
The Weimar map,[261] though long carefully housed, has suffered
blurring and fading with some other damage in its earlier history.
It is evidently a late representative of the tradition and begins to
wander slightly from the accepted standard. It has been curtailed also
from the beginning, like Bianco’s map of 1436, by the limitations of
the border, which in this instance cuts off the lower part of Antillia,
though the name is nearly intact; but enough remains to indicate a
reduced relative size and a greater slant to the northeastward than on
Beccario’s map. There is, of course, no room for Reylla, and there is
none for I in Mar; but
Salvagio is given plainly and fully, with the letter S quite
conspicuous. I cannot read more of the name on the photograph; but
the Weimar librarian reads San on the original, being uncertain as
to the rest. This map bears traces of local names arranged in places
like those of Benincasa but fragmentary and illegible. Perhaps these
names tend to show that the maps belong not only to the same period,
but to the same general school of development. The other differences
between this map and its predecessors are trivial. The general idea
of the island series is the same so far as it is disclosed, and it is
hardly to be doubted that all elements of the islands of Antillia would
have been presented in the main on this map as they are by Roselli and
Beccario, if there had been room to do so.
[Illustration: FIG. 22--Section of the Benincasa map of 1482 showing
the Antilles, St. Brendan’s Islands, and others. (After Kretschmer’s
hand-copied reproduction.)]
THE LAON GLOBE OF 1493
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